Stopped over in Bird Land for some lunch seed and LOOKY THERE….On the batting title watch: GREAT IDEA DG!

Couldn’t get a rookie pic of Albert?
That one of Chipper…wow.. he looks like a kid!

Seems like there should still be some distinction regarding AT BATS…
If all things are equal [ABs are equal ] then this commparison means something, if the ABs are unequal the person with the greater ABs has considerable more opportunity to FAIL [about 60%-70% for these two)
& it seems the law of averages catches up with the greater opportunity!
See my point?

Oh, well, it is what is is and I hope AP hits 500 the rest of the way!!

Found some pictures of rookie Pujols, but I was looking specifically for a picture of a baseball card (there was a reason it had to be a baseball card) and a picture that went with the design of the blog. Jones looking to the right of the card; Pujols to the left.

Yes, I over-think this stuff.

So DG that gives you the right to take my picture off my eBay listing for the Pujols card. I am not sure if eBay would be to happy with that.

Hey Derrick,
I plan on mentioning this blog on my podcast, Redbirds of a Feather. Good job.
Freddie

Hi Derrick,

You wrote:

All that said, batting average is still important as a measure of players, if not their impact on the game, because it always has been.

You imply here that batting average is not, or at least may not be, an important measure of a player’s impact on the game. I strongly disagree.

I do acknowledge that slugging percentage is important. As you stated, yes, a double is better than a single. But a single is better than an out by a much wider margin than a double is better than a single — which means that looking only at slugging percentage and not at batting average gives us a skewed picture. Because slugging percentage gives just as much credit for the second base taken (i.e., the difference between a double and a single) as for the first base taken (i.e., the difference between a single and an out), when in fact those differences are not the same.

Likewise, on-base percentage is an important stat too. But it also is not perfect, because it gives just as much credit for a walk as for a single. But if you are batting with runners on second and third, which one would be more beneficial to your team — a single or a walk? Obviously, not all ways of reaching base are equal, when there are already runners on base.

So to get the best picture of the offensive contributions of a player, I think it is clear that it is beneficial to look at all three stats — batting average, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage. Each one is valuable, but none of them is perfect. (And obviously there are many other meaningful measures we could look at too, besides these three stats.)

Great point ,TexasT. I have questioned the same thing. AP has 462 ABs this season, Jones has only 408. That is a big difference.

DG, What are your thoughts on the possibility of AP having surgery at the end of this season? I’ve heard a lot of different opinions about when the surgery should happen. In my opinion, if he plans to have the surgery after the season concludes, he should go ahead and have the surgery right now, so he can be back A.S.A.P for 2009. But whatever he does it will probably be taken many different ways. If he doesn’t have it done in the imediate future then people will call him “Selfish” for trying to wrapup the MVP and BA title. If he does cut 2008 short by a couple of weeks then I have a feeling he will be heavily criticized for quitting on the team and a possible playoff run for 2008.

I think the batting average race will be hurt by both players getting rested down the stretch. The Braves are long gone from the NL East race and Chipper’s been dealing with a ton of nagging injuries so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him sitting more often in September. And with Pujols, even though the Cardinals are technically still in it, this elbow injury concern is now more serious since the Tommy Johhn surgery inevitability has come out. If the Cardinals mount a furious comeback, they will obviously sacrifice Pujols’ health for more wins but if they find themselves out of it, Pujols will be on the bench more often too.

emc, I am sorry but there is no way that Pujols can take himself out now for multiple reasons. The first is the Cards are an extremely legitimate playoff contender if they can sweep the Cubs. The Brewers are in a serious skid and after their next two against Cincy they have to play 4 at Philly. If the Cards can take 5 of 6 from the Cubs and Bucs over the rest of the week, they could be within a game or two for the wild card. That alone means Albert is going to play out the year. Throw in that he is on a tear right now and could finish with his highest BA ever, win a batting title, an MVP and he is close to continuing his record setting string of consecutive seasons with 100 RBI to start a career and I don’t think anyone would call him selfish for wanting to achieve some pretty historical goals. All of that and the fact that Albert is the type of guy who comes to work to work and I don’t think he could look in the mirror after pulling himself out when he is healthy enough to play.
I am only guessing at this as I have no inside information, but I would not be surprised if this was supposed to be a motivational ploy of some sort to push the Cards over the last couple of weeks to get into the playoffs and postpone Albert’s surgery.

Albert won’t do it ’til they are math elim…he’s a pro. I hope it all goes well for him and he can play in June